Stardew Valley (Nintendo Switch): First Thoughts

When I first heard about the Nintendo NX — later announced and released as the Nintendo Switch — my curiosity was piqued. Although I don’t get time to play games as much as I used to the Zelda preview videos looking absolutely stunning, and the idea of an open-world version of this iconic game made the expense for this half-hearted hobby sound doable. For me to then find out that Stardew Valley, quite possibly my favourite PC game of all time, was getting a Switch release? Mind blown.

Despite a short month in September leaving me in my overdraft I did the sensible thing on yesterday’s release date and purchased it minutes after it became available in the eShop. A short download later and I’ve barely put the game down since: I’m not far off Summer in the first year, I’ve grown almost every Spring crop, I’ve done a bunch of Community Center tasks, explored over 20 levels in the mine and I’m on my way to wooing the lady I’d like to be my wife (Leah fans unite!)

Having spent so much time on the game already I’m pleasantly surprised at how intuitive it is on the console — particularly as I’ve tried it on the steam link previously and not enjoyed the controller experience — and how few bugs I’ve come across. There have been a few incidences of me pressing a button and it not doing anything in game, and one where I pressed the button once and hammered the crap out of everything with my pickaxe, but these are likely communication issues with the console (playing docked) rather than the game itself.

Aside from this, the only other glitch that I’ve encountered is a task set from Clint where, upon asking for Coals [sic] and indeed the task being completed with 10 coal (which spoilers!you can still fish out of a chest one by one to complete) you are thanked for ore, and the conversation is identical to the ore-themed quests on the PC. You can see an example of the wording mixup in the journal:

Nonetheless… the familiar music, the adorable graphics, the storylines and character arcs are all there and all exactly as I remember them from my last stint on the PC version. I am in love, and this was well worth waiting for.